Agents of Atlas #7
Posted: Tuesday, June 30, 2009
By: Charles Webb
Jeff Parker
Gabriel Hardman, Carlos Pagulayan (p), Elizabeth Breitweiser, Gabriel Hardman (colors)
Marvel Comics
Plot: Cousins Namor and Namora talk marriage, while Atlas head Jimmy Woo contemplates the loss of one of his strongest members.
Comments: It's a testament to Jeff Parker that he's able to keep kissin' cousins Namor and Namora from seeming too icky. Over the last two issues I've come to buy that these characters have been into each other for years, needing only a little nudge from Venus to get where they need to be.
As for Jimmy and the rest of the Atlas team, Namora's reconnection with her monarch cousin is bittersweet: they're happy that the hotheaded princess has finally found peace but at the possible cost of losing her from the team's roster. In a short time, Parker has established a real rapport among the members of the Atlas Group, so the swirl of emotions surrounding the latest developments don't have to be telegraphed so broadly that the reader is hit over the head with it. We get how they feel and we understand the consequences.
In a previous review, I noted that it was a matter of time before the other shoe dropped on the Atlas members. So far things have gone too well for them – forging an alliance with Namor, convincing Osborne that they're truly villains, and keeping Temudgin at bay. I think that we're on the cusp of things starting to happen on the other side of that. No, I have no inkling of what that will be, but I imagine that the Mandarin's son, ever on the periphery of the story thanks to Jimmy, will at some point be the cause of the team's downfall.
As to the art, it's very lovely. The undersea environments look lived in and the weird fauna being studied in the middle of the issue looks wonderfully weird and exotic. It's good to know there are artists out there still dreaming of odd, alien worlds and the things that inhabit them.
Final Word: The book works so well because of the personality it invests in its cast. When things don't go their way, you're disappointed for them and Parker allows you to share in their victories as well. It continues to be one of the best books from Marvel and one of the best books on the shelves period.
If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at Monster In Your Veins
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